John Larson resigned from the Seal Beach Planning Commission last week for health reasons. Mark Persico, director of Development Services, and David Carmany, city manager confirmed Larson’s resignation.
The Planning Commission was scheduled to honor Larson at this week’s Wednesday, May 5 meeting. Details of the meeting were not available at press time.
Larson has had health issues for more than two years.
The District 2 planner resigned from his seat on the City Council in January 2008 after he was hospitalized.
His council term would have expired in November 2008. Larson was mayor of Seal Beach in 2006 and 2007, according to a May 5, 2010 Planning Commission resolution honoring him.
Larson represented District 2 on both the commission and the City Council. District 2 includes College Park West and parts of Leisure World.
He returned to city service in January 2009, when he re-joined the Planning Commission.
The commission was familiar turf to Larson, who served as a Seal Beach planner from August 1997 to May 2000.
Larson, an attorney, worked in city and county government professionally before moving to Leisure World and joining the Planning Commission for the first time.
Larson’s successor on the City Council is David Sloan, who was appointed to the office in February 2008. The appointment of Sloan changed the make-up of the council. Until that time, Councilman Larson and District 5 Councilman Michael Levitt were both Leisure World residents. Sloan lives in College Park West.
Larson apparently resigned after the Monday, April 27 City Council meeting. The vacancy his resignation creates on the Planning Commission will be officially made public at the Monday, May 10 council meeting.
